Paul Carringer’s latest article for The CCDaily, published by the American Association of Community Colleges.
What keeps leaders of our institutions up at night? In a recent study of community college presidents by theNational Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR), the top marketing concerns were:
• Budget/finance
• Social media
• Marketing
• Target audiences
Surrounding these concerns is the need for “strategic thinking” by college leaders. The study participants expressed the need to do more with less and being more effective with marketing efforts in a competitive environment. And, with the reality of many constituencies, college presidents worry about targeting each group, traditional and nontraditional, effectively and efficiently.
Part of the job
Telling our institutional story in the news can have a direct and positive impact on these issues. Thomas Garbett described how being the chief communicator and reputation manager for the organization is an “unwritten part of every CEOs job description” way back in 1988. In the book Public Relations and the Presidency, John Ross and Carol Halstead note that presidents identify the media as being a very important audience and that the development of good media relations is a key to the success of the institution and the president.